Community Forums

rccamper · 05-01-2011, 06:19 PM

ive bought a 89 fleetwood 5th wheel and ive got to replace the floor my question is does the floor go under the walls of the trailer ?

metalbender · 05-01-2011, 06:28 PM

yes in most builds these units are built from the frame up. that said it is possable to replace the floor it just takes a little work.

LibbyLA · 05-01-2011, 06:36 PM

rccamper,

My SO and I are doing that now. We used a utility knife (box knife) to cut out all the old vinyl and carpet. We left the original carpet/vinyl only in the cabinets, under the booth seats, and under the bed.

Unfortunately, when we ripped up our flooring, we found rotted subfloor and support beams that had to be replaced

. I hope your experience is much better!

It does take time to get the old stuff out and then remove all the staples that were used to staple everything to the floor. My SO claims that the construction guys must get paid by the pound of staples.

The repairs are made and the new entertainment center is done. (Old one had to be ripped out so floor could be repaired). Slide goes back in next Saturday. We laid down a couple of rows of flooring this afternoon just so we could see how it looks. It will take awhile to get the new floor in and we'll also have to finish some quarter round and put that down.

liz

87_Fixr · 05-09-2011, 04:10 PM

Pics, LibbyLA, pics! I'd sure like to see the new floor. Did you have to make sure the floor is low enough so the slideout won't scrape when reinstalled? How was the slide removed- with a fork lift?

LibbyLA · 05-09-2011, 06:12 PM

dnstclr,

I have pics, but not of the finished floor because we're on hold on that part of the project until we get the slide problems resolved. Believe me, there will be pictures of all the improvements because I've learned so much from the photos that other folks here have shared.

Here's a link to the thread on our refurb "adventure":

1998 Alumascape FW project

There are links to a couple of albums, including the subfloor repair.

In the thread, there are pics of the new entertainment center with a couple of rows of flooring down. The last post is our disaster with the slide gouging the floor and how we plan to handle it.

Yep, a forklift and some cribbing underneath the slide were used. If you have the time, you can read all about it in that thread and there are pictures of removing the slide.

Not for the faint-hearted.

I don't think it's a matter of making sure that the floor is low enough, it's more a matter of making sure that the slide is high enough so that the bottom and sides don't touch the floor at any point. With carpet, it doesn't matter so much, but with a hard floor, it really does. I think our slide wasn't set up properly when we got it, even for carpet, but we're going to have to put rollers under it to lift it enough so the sides don't gouge the floor. One thing we'll have to watch is that there is a "crown" of sorts over the first beam in from the outside, so the rollers will have to lift the slide high enough in the front that the lower outside edge of the slide doesn't hit the floor over that crown. Must be a "feature" since there's a crown on both sides.

One thing we learned is that you want to test your slide with minimal flooring in place. I can't imagine how sick we'd have felt if we used sheet vinyl and ruined that. If you discover that you have a gouging problem, you can use painter's tape over the problem areas each time you test again and you can tell whether your adjustments have fixed the problem or not.

liz

first5thwheel · 05-20-2011, 11:24 PM

I do not know if you saw my post, but I found a really cool waterproof vinyl floor that is really thin, slightly thicker than linoleum, but thinner than laminate flooring and is far more affordable. I was going to do real wood, but discovered it may have a negative effect on my slide. Check this link out and see if this possibly could work for you. Once you get your subfloor clear of all staples and the old linoleum you will put this stuff down in no time. Actually the manufacturer says you can lay this floor right over several surfaces.

Link: